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If your current/existing system is so old that still has sections of metal pipe connecting it, and several landscape/irrigation companies/technicians have worked on itn it is a very strong as well as alarming signal that it is time to disconnect the old system and invest on a new one.
You are facing one of three courses of action:
1- Invest now and save later by having a new system that is fully warrantied;
2- Save now, and pay later over the long term. Be cheap and just making occasional service repairs that more than likely will not be fully warrantied could present a reliable income source to those you choose to hire.
3- Save more now and do nothing about it, is only going to cause your landscape to deteriorate more rapidly, affect in a negative way your property/
's curb and value. The choice is yours, good luck.

Warranty for new system

I have a few questions regarding irrigation systems, as I know nothing about them. I will post each of them individually. Here is the background:

We inherited a sprinkler system 7 years ago, when we bought a house built in 1972 in Portland, OR. Supposedly (according to the person who maintained it but didn’t install it for the prior owner) the system was installed in parts over time, as it has both galvanized steel and PVC pipes. A few heads were replaced, some were shut down during the past few years. The system is functional but some of the heads no longer go down, some spray erratically and water the side walk and fences, etc. The maintenance guy tells us that "removing a sprinkler head is a major challenge; put a wrench to it and the pipe below may crack. One day soon you either see your water bill going high up or a muddy sink hole in your garden.“. The current system has 6 zones, an Orbit controller, a mixture of head types and 3 valve boxes. The house is on a slope so the ground is relatively flat in the front and back but sloping on the 2 sides. We have grass on all sides and some flower/bush areas.

I asked for proposals from the current maintenance guy and 2 more companies in this business and asked them for their professional opinion about potentially “upgrading" the existing system. All 3 only wanted to bid only on a new system, stating that probably I would end up paying almost the same for upgrading the old system with no guarantee for its reliability.
I got the 3 proposals, all of them quoted for a much higher price than expected and with contradicting recommendations and comments, which really confused me. I have no idea whom I can trust (or not).

Two of the 3 proposals do not mention anything about any warranty and the contractors do not provide any formal contracts beyond the proposal. When asked, one of the said that their 1 year "Warranty covers everything that can break naturally if we winterize annually... without mother nature’s help-freezes, earthquake, large tree roots, grass roots growing into nozzles, bark dust caught in nozzles, humans breaking heads or pipes, utility companies breaking something.”. It’s hard to see then what’s covered (beyond maybe the manufacturer’s guarantee). Also if I read the above correctly, it seems that while they honor any warranty only if I pay them to winterize (and activate) the system, freezing caused problems are not covered….. Is this standard, is tis an acceptable kind of warranty?